Aaa Projecting Busy Holiday

TOM STIEGHORST TOURISM

Today is expected to be the busiest Labor Day for travel since 1995, according to projections from AAA, formerly the American Automobile Association.

The Orlando-based travel firm projects 33.4 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home on this year's holiday, up 1.8 percent from last year.

"The potentially record high holiday travel reflects continued strong vacation travel among Americans as the summer has progressed," AAA Travel Vice President Sandra Hughes said.

Most are expected to drive on their weekend getaways, despite the rising cost of gasoline. Some 28.2 million will journey by car, up 2.2 percent from last year's holiday period.

About 3.7 million people will take trips by airplane, down 2.6 percent from 2002.

AAA said the fact that most of the weekend falls in August this year is encouraging more trips. "The early arrival of Labor Day will cut summer short for many families, placing a bit more emphasis on this last shot at summer vacation," Hughes said.

The previous record for Labor Day travel in 1995 was 33.2 million trips.

Increased travel is one factor in rising gas prices, along with disrupted oil exports from Iraq and low gasoline imports from Europe.

Trans-Meridian Airlines has started nonstop service between Fort Lauderdale and Syracuse, N.Y., the only direct flight on that route.

The charter airline currently has regular flights between Syracuse, Orlando and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The study is based on responses from 12,850 guests who stayed in a hotel between January and June 2003.

Passenger traffic at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport rose 6.1 percent in July from a year earlier. Traffic rose 0.4 percent in June and declined 0.8 percent in May.

Carriers with leading shares of the market include Delta Air Lines (21 percent), American Airlines (12.3 percent), Southwest Airlines (12.2 percent) and USAirways (9.5 percent). Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways both claimed 8.4 percent of July traffic.

For the fourth consecutive time, the cruise ship Topaz has received an "unsatisfactory" score from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. In a sanitation inspection at the Port of New York in August, the 47-year-old ship was graded 72 on a scale of 100; 86 is passing.

Topaz, formerly Carnival Cruise Line's Carnivale, is doing round-the-world cruises for a Japanese firm, said Paris Katsoufis, head of Kyma Ship Management of Miami, which operates the vessel. Katsoufis said that until recently the ship docked in the United States infrequently and the crew was relatively new and unfamiliar with inspection requirements.

Send items for this column to tstieghorst@sun-sentinel.com or call 305-810-5008.